The further to the left or the right you move, the more your lens on life distorts.

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

FIFA-Like

Hillary Clinton continues her media avoidance tour, refusing the answer salient questions about the many scandalous activities that she has engaged in. At the same time, she never misses an opportunity to offer a video clip of herself "listening" closely to a carefully vetted group of artificially diverse citizens, nodding her head sagely, and showing mock concern. Her only pronouncements are of the typical class warfare variety, with candidate Bernie Sanders trumping her lurch to the left by suggesting a 90 percent income tax rate. He's beginning to become a political character straight out of Atlas Shrugged.

Ubiquitous but opaque. Powerful but unaccountable. Ostensibly public spirited but relentlessly mercenary. Often shamed but unshakably shameless. Let us count the ways in which the Clinton Foundation resembles the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known as FIFA.

Last week we learned that FIFA had made a donation to the Foundation in the range of $50,000 to $100,000. But for the Clintons that kind of money is hardly worth mentioning, so the suggestion of some sort of unseemly financial linkage between the two organizations is doubtful. You don’t get to roll with Bill, Hill or Chelsea for less than seven figures ...

The Qatar story [in which FIFA and the Clintons accepted political gifts (a.k.a. bribes)] is suggestive of the way in which both FIFA and the Clinton Foundation work. Both organizations serve as portals through which shadowy people find their way, for a given price, into the light: the light of social respectability, the best parties, the right connections. It works in the other direction, too. How better to get lucrative uranium mining concessions in Kazakhstan or roadwork contracts in Haiti than by going through the Clinton Foundation? How better to make a tidy fortune in media and marketing rights than by greasing the right palms at FIFA—assuming, that is, that the Justice Department’s indictment is to be believed?

Also, how better to avoid close scrutiny than by doing—or purporting to do—good works in scrubby jurisdictions where laws can be usefully vague and officials are frequently pliable?

Today, polls indicate that almost 60 percent of the electorate questions Hillary's honesty. Given the history of the last eight years, I suspect that all will be forgotten and forgiven and that Clinton's vast campaign chest and a compliant media (give them time) will initiate a PR campaign that will elevate her to "great leader" status. We'll see.

About Me

Over the years, I’ve been an engineer, a manager, a professor, a consultant, an author and an entrapreneur. Today, I work with my sons at Evannex, an automotive aftermarket products manufacturer and e-commece company that specializes in electric vehicles. I've written a number of best-selling college textbooks and have tried the occasional novel.
I’ve lived long enough to see the irrationality in extreme positions taken by both ends of the political spectrum and worry that decisions driven by these positions may get us all into very real trouble. I harbor no illusions about influencing decision-making, only making a comment or two that might provoke you to think beyond the prevailing narrative.
On a personal level, I’ve been married for 48 years (to the same person!) and have two terrific sons who live and work in South Florida and are partners in a business we've created.
I'm originally from Connecticut, but have lived in SoFla for almost 20 years.